Dion Lewis stays the course in continuing recovery from ACL injury

Friday

Aug 4, 2017 at 7:23 PMAug 4, 2017 at 7:23 PM

The first goal for Lewis is understandably to stay healthy. Injuries limited him to seven games each of the last two seasons after not playing a game in 2013 and ’14. He figures if he can do that and put the practice time in, the snaps and touches will sort themselves out come game day.

By Rich Garven@RichGarvenTG

FOXBORO — Dion Lewis missed the first nine games last season as he rehabbed from a pair of knee surgeries, one to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in November of 2016 and the other a cleanup procedure nine months later.
Lewis made it back to the field 54 weeks after he went down, which isn’t the same as saying he was 100 percent healthy.
“I was healthy enough to play last year, but I was still working every day to get my strength back, doing rehab work,” Lewis said Friday following Day 8 of training camp. “So I was still focused on a lot of other stuff other than playing football.”
The 5-foot-8, 195-pound Lewis put up solid enough numbers in the regular season, averaging 4.4 yards a carry, but he clearly lacked explosiveness and elusiveness and appeared to wear down late in the year.
And while Lewis became the first player in NFL history to score touchdowns via a rush, reception and kick return in a playoff game in a win over the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional round, he had a negligible impact in the AFC Championship and Super Bowl LI and finished the postseason averaging 3.2 yards a carry.
“Anybody coming off a major injury … and then he had a little corrective surgery before the season started, that’s not easy,” running backs coach Ivan Fears said. “I thought he did a great job getting back, I really did. I was very happy to see him out there and I thought he helped us tremendously.
“Time, the extra time now, yes, I expect that he is feeling a hell of a lot better than he did when he showed up late in the season last year.”
The diminutive and (typically) dynamic Lewis seconded the motion.
“Now I’m really just focused on football, which is the good thing,” he said. “I’m out here trying to learn football and not worrying about what I have to do in the training room.”
The Patriots practiced in pads for the sixth straight day Friday, most of the two-hour workout devoted to an intrasquad scrimmage.
With running backs Mike Gillislee (injury) and Rex Burkhead (unknown) sitting out, Lewis received a lot of touches. He made the most of them, displaying his trademark shiftiness, lateral quickness and nimble feet, doing more reacting and less thinking.
“Yeah,” Lewis agreed. “I’m reacting and not worrying about, ‘Oh, what’s going to happen if I make this hard cut?’ So I feel good. I still have a lot of work to do, but I definitely feel like I’m making improvements and I definitely feel like my ability is there.”
The Patriots retained Lewis, Brandon Bolden, D.J. Foster, and James White and reinforced the running back position with the offseason additions of Burkhead from the Cincinnati Bengals and Gillislee from the Buffalo Bills.
The depth chart has yet to be sorted out, but the backs are all putting their best foot forward when it comes to working with one another.
“We’ve got a great group of guys,” Lewis said. “They come in and work hard every day. So those are guys you like to be around. And they compete as well.
“I’m happy to have them here, but everybody is trying to compete for the same thing. Obviously, everybody is working to do that, but at the same time we’re close and we help each other out.”
The Patriots did part ways with LeGarrette Blount. The powerful back ranked second in the NFL last season with 299 carries and was first among the team’s running backs in playing time, receiving 47.2 percent of the offensive snaps.
The first goal for Lewis is understandably to stay healthy. Injuries limited him to seven games each of the last two seasons after not playing a game in 2013 and ’14.
He figures if he can do that and put the practice time in, the snaps and touches will sort themselves out come game day.
“I work hard and show (the coaching staff) that I can do everything,” said Lewis, who is arguably the most versatile back on the roster due to his running, receiving and blocking skills.
“I worry about what I can control, and I can’t control how many snaps I get or carries I get. What I can control is how hard I come out here every day and how hard I work and compete, so that’s my main focus.”
With his knee surgeries behind him, Lewis hopes to have a leg up on the competition for playing time in the Patriots’ backfield.
- Rich Garven writes for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette of GateHouse Media.